Case Number 02249: Small Claims Court

NIGHTMARE CITY

The Charge

Now they are everywhere! There is no escape!

The Case

A mysterious plane unexpectedly lands at a metropolitan airport. The police
and the press surround the rogue aircraft and await its inhabitants to depart.
Unfortunately, instead of casino minded Eurotrash, it is filled to the first
class section with contamination zombies, the result of a nuclear accident.
These creatures are not your typical dawdling members of the living dead
fraternity. They are fast, capable of rational thought and strategizing, adept
at using weapons, and know a good family owned amusement park bargain when they
see one. They slaughter everyone on the tarmac and head into the city. The
military try, but appear powerless to control the carnage and it is up to a
reporter, Dean, to save his doctor wife, Anna, so that they can both escape the
terrible onslaught as their town without pity turns into a Nightmare
City.

Gore films can basically be divided into three categories: the serious, the
silly, and the sublime. George Romero's Dead Trilogy or John
Carpenter's The Thing utilize buckets of blood to underline the potential
danger and horror of the character's situation. Something like Herschel Gordon
Lewis' Two Thousand Maniacs makes carnage ludicrous, presenting it in a
silly, comic book fashion. And then there are the sublime gore epics, films that
straddle humor and horror in an expert and exciting manner. You see the delicate
balancing act at play in movies like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive or Ngai
Kai Lam's Riki-O: Story of Ricky. These films regale as they repulse,
hitting the gag reflex and the funny bone simultaneously. Add Nightmare
City to that pantheon of slaughter and knee slap extravaganzas. Anyone
expecting a Fulci style cinematic gross out will be pleasantly surprised that a
barf bag and a strong stomach are not required concession items. One does have
to have a certain mindset, though, one that isn't offended by vicious killings
committed by actors with spicy hunks of Greek gyro hanging off their cheeks. The
grue factor includes several nifty set piece attacks, with eyes gouged out, deep
wedges carved into backs and heads, and even one unfortunate victim who gets to
suffer some unwarranted breast augmentation surgery. The hilarity, though, stems
from the fact that every dollar that went into creating realistic mutilation was
removed from the monster effects budget, so we end up with zombies that look
like Teddy Ruxpin's mudblups. Or maybe like a bunch of Italian/German/Spaniards
with burnt meatballs on their faces. Either way, every time these hyper-kinetic
and active creatures show up, they inspire waves of uncontrollable belly
laughing as they spill plasma and entrails all over the ground while looking
like Mr. Potatohead's African American relatives. Nightmare City could
actually be called Metropolis of the Living Cat Turds, since so often our
fiends look like something Muffy left behind in the Fresh Step.

But what really makes this DVD from Anchor Bay so special, aside from the
incredibly deranged movie, is Tales of the Contaminated City, a 15-minute
interview with Director Umberto Lenzi. As with other lesser-known horror and
giallo titles from Europe, Blue Underground has conducted little
mini-documentary/discussions with the filmmakers to explain and examine these
cult obscurities. Lenzi is heartless in his examination of Nightmare
City. He calls himself a director for hire. He criticizes the producer and
the script. He laughs at the less than successful monster make-up. And in the
end, he leaves the viewer with an even more enduring and favorable feeling about
the film. There would be no need for a trailer, or excellent widescreen
anamorphic picture (both of which are offered here though), just knowing that
the DVD contained nuggets of joy like Lenzi's toxic criticism of actor Hugo
Stiglitz. This alone is enough to recommend adding Nightmare City to your
collection. It may not be Dawn of or Return of the Living Dead,
but when it comes to rotting corpses that can fight, bite, run, kick, shoot,
stab, drive, drink, punch, prod, poke, and overall pester the bejeezus out of
you while still looking like an overcooked salami, Nightmare City is the
movie to beat. That is, until Sylvester Stallone decides to make another action
flick.